Category: general

Great video this week at Midweek MICTA; in fact, I thought I’d share it here so everyone can get to watch:

Communication is critical to success in business and life. Concerned about an upcoming interview? Anxious about being asked to give your thoughts during a meeting? Fearful about needing to provide critical feedback in the moment? You are not alone! Learn and practice techniques that will help you speak spontaneously with greater confidence and clarity, regardless of content and context.

As you probably know, the British Isles are my second home; I was born and raised in Malta, where the sun shines every day 🙂 Well, one thing that I never came across before coming to this beautiful, cool country was plasterboard! Back in Malta, houses are built from stone (limestone to be exact), and if you want to hang something on the wall you hammered a nail in and hung whatever you wanted to hang.

Meeting plasterboard for the first time was an experience. I hammered a nail in and found it went straight through and didn’t quite manage to hold anything up. It took some time to figure out that there were different ways of dealing with this, and with the right fixings you could hang anything you wanted. I’m older and wiser today, but I have discovered something that would have made is so much easier!

Grip It Fixings are a brand new innovation that makes hanging things on plasterboard really easy and you can hang items weighing up to 180kg on them! They received national exposure after successfully appearing on Dragon’s Den and getting funding to help them grow.

Here’s how they work:

I gave them a try this weekend and must say that they’re really intuitive. Once you drill your hole and position the fixing, you simply use a screwdriver to extend the fixing’s arms and and it’s ready to hang anything you like from it. I wish I had these so many years ago when I first met plasterboard.

Try them out if you get a chance. If you want to learn more about Grip It, you can find them on Twitter and Facebook. We also have a rafflecopter if you’d like to try and win some:

Hey everyone! It’s Third Thursday again and time for the Social Media Club to meet up again.Time to catch up on Social Media news, time to share your views and time to grab a bite with your Tweeps, Facebook friends and LinkedIn contacts.

It’s an open invitation and anyone can come and join us. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been using Facebook ever since it existed, or whether you’re simply interested in finding out more about Social Media, and how it can help your career or your organisation. Just pop in, we’re a welcoming bunch and always look forward to meeting people with an interest in Social Media.

You all know the time and venue: Paparazzi at 12:30 on Thursday 16th. Come if you can, even if it’s only to grab a coffee and say hello.

Awesome experiment: International Space Station commander Chris Hadfield soaks a washcloth, gives it a twist, and…well, you’ll see. Before you watch the clip, try and guess what you think will happen. I must say, I thought something different would happen myself. Check it out:

Guinness say that “achieving a Guinness World Record is much more than a simple fact: it’s a means of understanding your position in the world… a yardstick for measuring how you and those around you fit in”.

In 2009 468 dedicated Manx pairs captured the 3-Legged World Record. This triumph was short lived with a Japanese school soon stepping up to take our title with 502 pairs. But now it’s time for the Isle of Man to reclaim this record, and a local initiative is organising the date to make it happen. It’s all going to happen on the 6th of May, yes it’s a Monday, but it’s a Bank Holiday. They’re looking for 1000 pairs of people who are ready to take part in a race. It won’t be a long race, don’t worry, only 200m in all; but it will help secure the Isle of Man’s place in the Guinness World Records Book.

Arthur has been saying he wants to be part of a world record for some time now, so this has just come up at the perfect time. The question is .. are you going to join us?

Some time ago I had blogged about a set of headphone I had got my hands on called Bassbuds. I was particularly impressed with the design of the product though they were probably better suited to someone a bit younger than me 🙂

Anyway, what I didn’t realise was that the product hadn’t quite launched in the UK yet; in fact the official launch is on March the 23rd. And to celebrate the official launch, BassBuds are hosting a competition with over 100 prizes to win including BassBuds in-ear headphones, Bassboomz portable bluetooth speakers, VIP tickets to the celebrity launch party, and VIP tickets to their launch concert next Saturday in Wembley Arena called The Show Tour. The concert look awesome with 5 of the biggest, most influential R&B groups of the 90s, something just up my street!

So, if you think you’re up for one of the prizes, head down to the Bassbuds competition. The top prize is an amazing package consisting of tickets to the celebrity launch party, VIP tickets to the concert (for 2), a night stay at the London Hilton and a selection of BassBoomz and BassBuds. Check it out!

I've been playing with some new apps over the last few days and came across one that's just perfect to manage your financial assets. It's an all called Personal Capital and is available for iPad, iPhone and Android.

The great thing about this app is that it lets you manage all the different assets you own, funds, stocks, accounts etc all in one place. It gives you graphs and charts showing what you're worth, what you're spending and how your investments are doing. No more jumping from one website to another trying to get a complete picture, no more trying to piece a complete picture together, this app does it for you and fits in your pocket. Here are some screenshots from the app:

The app has a number of different features, from the performance of your portfolio all the way to a 401k organiser; from asset allocation to a mutual fund fee calculator. It even lets you run a checkup on your investments and on your general state of affairs. It's a great way to track your spending and income, check which are your biggest expenses and get a complete view of what's going on in your financial affairs.